Good Sights from Clearwater

This won’t get too in-depth, but I just wanted to list a few of the things I’ve enjoyed seeing during spring training so far. There are a few .gifs, so let that be a warning to those of you with slower computers.

Howard has 10 hits in 24 spring training at-bats, including three doubles and these three home runs:

The first two were hit off of Craig Kimbrel and defending NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey. Not exactly scrubs. The third was hit off of lefty Brett Cecil. In the early going, Howard has looked very comfortable against left-handed pitching. Even better is that he is hitting to the opposite field regularly, something he did not do last year.

No one expects Howard to recapture his 2006 ways, but a 30-homer, .850 OPS year from him would be a boon to the Phillies’ otherwise questionable offense.

Brown has a third homer which was not captured on video. He has seven hits in 20 at-bats this spring, and has added six walks just for good measure, tied for the most across both the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues. It is looking more and more likely that he opens up the season with a starting outfield job.

I’ve gone on record countless times saying that Frandsen’s success in 2012 was fluky, that he won’t be able to maintain such a high batting average going forward. And he probably won’t. But he’s hitting .364 with five extra-base hits in spring so far, which is nice to see. If he can be a reliable pinch-hitter and occasional fill-in, he will be quite a value. Remember, the Phillies intended on Frandsen being the every day third baseman before they traded for Michael Young.

JM

JMJ & Brown have looked the best defensively in the OF as well. If…IF those two can sustain their swings, the OF should be at least league average and if…IF the INF can play to 90% of their previous production, the Phillies all of a sudden look like a threat…IF…

nik

humbug

I’ve long said (without any substantiating prooof) that the big drop-off in Howard’s production from RoY/MVP to now has been his shift to pulling everything. Back in his first two years, he hit opposite field with power. Since, he has turned anything outside into a grounder into the shift. I am absolutely delighted by those first two gifs. Equally delighted that Dom could actually get a fair shot. Cholly has criminally mismanaged that kid.

Pencilfish

1) Are there any ST stats (pitching, hitting or fielding) that can be considered predictors for regular season performance? I am thinking of SO’s and perhaps errors?!

2) Kevin Frandsen has played mostly 3B and 2B in his career. It is entirely possible he will back-up Michael Young and Chase Utley, if Delmon Young eventually comes off the DL and displaces Freddy Galvis from the bench.

LTG

Errors in ST are definitely not predictive for a myriad of reasons that are just like the reasons for other stats: unusual weather conditions, games don’t matter, random variation in small samples, etc.

General audience,

If y’all have been watching the games you should have noticed that every team is getting some awful fielding, some of which is not even recorded as errors. I doubt this portends anything for the regular season.

Andrew Cleveland Alexander

Adam Morgan with 3 hitless innings today. I’d say that’s a development to watch–they seem to be taking a very long look at him. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he sees significant time in the majors this year due to the inevitable injuries or underperformance by Lannan and/or Kendrick.

Everything the Phillies did, before the Young trade came out of nowhere, indicated Frandsen getting significant playing time at third base. That’s why they signed him to a Major League deal to avoid arbitration rather than non-tendering him.

Amaro rarely says anything substantive about player roles, much less anything that is believable.

Kevin

humbug, I am far from a Manuel fan, and I am a big Brown fan, but objectively, when Dom has been on the roster, he has been in the line-up. It’s Amaro that set Brown back by failing to show any confidence and specifically by acquiring Hunter Pence just when Brown was starting to recover from his hand injury and successfully hit big league pitching in July 2011 (check his July 2011 splits). That had to be very discouraging from Brown, especially if how discouraging it was for me is a yardstick.

BobSmith77

They signed Frandsen to essentially the veteran league minimum and did so because he was an organizational upgrade over Fields (who the Phils had already signed to a minor league deal) and Orr.

Basically a bench guy who can play 2B and 3B and if necessary SS. That’s all. The Phils acquired M. Young on Dec. 9th which was quite early in the offseason and refutes the notion that Frandsen was being counted on in any way to be a starter at 3B.

Phillie697

Not trying to be a sour puss, because quite frankly I’m pretty excited about the spring training performances so far, BUT… Douchbag Betancourt is hitting .421/.444/.471/.915. So yeah, let’s not get TOO excited. He might win a roster spot at this rate >.<

Pencilfish

I agree that Frandsen is a bench guy who can play 2B, 3B (maybe SS), but both Young and him are simply short-term solutions, while we wait for Cody Asche. We shouldn’t lose sight of that fact. I would be happy if 3B is essentially a 1.0 WAR player in 2013, considering what we have.